His caregiver, Cindy Bosnyak, said Raabe — pronounced RAH'-bee — died Friday morning at a hospital in Orange Park, Fla. He was one of the few surviving Munchkins from the 1939 film....
Raabe was one of the 124 Munchkins in the film classic and one of only nine who had speaking parts. He was 22 years old and a show business veteran, earning money for college as a "midget" performer, as they were called then, when the movie was shot in 1938. Raabe portrayed the diminutive Munchkin official who solemnly pronounces the witch dead after Dorothy's farmhouse lands on her: "As coroner I must aver/I thoroughly examined her/And she's not only merely dead/She's really most sincerely dead."...Raabe was about 3 1/2 feet tall when the movie was made. He eventually grew to about 4 1/2 feet. He toured the country for 30 years in the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, promoting hot dogs as "Little Oscar, the World's Smallest Chef." He also enjoyed going to Oz nostalgia events and getting fan mail. "It's an ego trip," he said. "This is our reward, the nostalgia."
In 2005, his book Memories of a Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down the Yellow Brick Road, co-written by Daniel Kinske, was published. In later years, he lived in a retirement community in Penney Farms, Fla. In 2007, Raabe was one of seven surviving Munchkins on hand when the Munchkins were honored in Los Angeles with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame....
As a fan of yours I must aver/Your film brought joy to all the world/I cannot just say merely, "thanks"/But really, most sincerely, "Thanks!"
Rest in peace. Any resemblance between the Yellow Brick Road and the Streets of Gold is anything but coincidental.